13 Shot Including 3-Year Old Boy in Rahm's Chicago

Thirteen people were shot during a Thursday night basketball game at Cornell Square Park in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood.

Two of the victims were in their teens: a 17-year-old girl, shot in the foot and a 15-year-old boy, shot in the arm. A three-year-old boy, Deonta Howard, was shot in the ear. Witnesses say the bullet exited through his cheek and he remains in critical condition at Mount Sinai Hospital.

Witnesses told police a gray sedan pulled up to the park around 10:15 p.m. and two men started firing in the 1800 block of West 51st Street.

Another neighbor said he was across the park from the basketball court when he heard as many as 20 shots. “I was across the park and I heard the shots and I came over and there was a lot of people down. It happened so fast. They were just playing ball, like they do everyday.”

The first paramedics found more than a dozen people lying across the rust-colored court. One person lay near a bicycle that was on its side. A pair of white gym shoes was left near an out-of-bounds line.

Ambulances continued to arrive a half-hour after the shootings as wounded people were brought out of the park on stretchers. About 60 police officers converged on the park and crime lab investigators combed the scene. By about 12:30 a.m. Friday, firefighters used hoses to clean blood from the basketball court.

The massive shooting comes on the heels of an FBI report “Crime in the United States of America 2012,” which indicates Chicago is the official murder capital of the country with 500 murders last year. Reports indicate there have already been 326 homicides this year.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel released the following statement regarding the shooting on Facebook this morning:

Senseless and brazen acts of violence have no place in Chicago and betray all that we stand for. The perpetrators of this crime will be brought to justice and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I encourage everyone in the community to step forward with any information and everyone in Chicago to continue their individual efforts to build stronger communities where violence has no place.